we paid for those -- it has to compete with everything else. strongestme of the advocates of the program would view that as a bad thing. >> we are just about out of time. thank you for coming. thanks to the panelists. it's been very exciting. [applause] tonight, the white house correspondents association dinner here in washington, d.c. at the same time, president trump will be holding a rally in green bay. the white house

correspondents dinner first. good morning. guest: good morning. host: as background for our viewers, tell us what the white house correspondents dinner is, how long it has been around, and why it is important. house the white correspondents association has been around for about 100 years. they have an annual dinner. promote goodly to journalism and to give scholarships to needy student journalists and to promote the cause of good reporting. it has become this huge weekend of parties and political intrigue with lots of different shindigs around it. it has ballooned into a four-day affair. normally, if i'm not

mistaken, the president attends this dinner. president trump is not attending and has not attended since winning the white house. why is president trump not going to this dinner? it is a verys boring dinner that was mean to him. last year and in previous years. he does not want to reward the press with attending their premier function every year. it has become a real point of has warnedwhere he his entire staff not to attend the dinner. they might relax that a little bit. president trump he has such bad relations with the media, but he creates our approval -- craves our approval some much, he

cannot decide whether he loves us or hates us. did donald trump attend the dinner at all before he became president? as he heather graham to this -- has he ever been to this dinner before? he was happy to attend the dinner multiple times before he was president. he got roasted multiple times. i remember meeting his kids at the dinner before he was president. this is a recent thing. donald trump was roasted by president obama, i think it was him to, that encouraged run for office because he did not want to be seen as this joke that she used to be viewed as. host: in your story, you say president trump's decision not to go to this dinner has taken the shine off of what was once the nerd prom.

has the dinner changed since president trump has decided not to attend? no more are is comedian anymore, at least for this year. they are instead having ron turn up, a major historian who wrote the hamilton book that became that musical everyone saw. he is going to give a talk about american history. i don't know how many jokes he is going to pull off. him, aind of a way for way for the association to reform the dinner. the hill hass -- to pull out of the dinner after the show will gave some insulting jokes on sarah sanders.

for thatidely panned performance. is back. some of the top parties like arety fair, bloomberg, they no longer having those parties anymore like they did in the obama administration. become a more subdued affair. it has gonback to its roots, and the celebrities do not want to have anything to do with president trump or controversial topics in washington. you jumped into my next question. normally we see hollywood celebrities come in big-name people showing up at this dinner who are not connected to journalism at all. do we expect any prominent guests at the dinner this year? like: there are people jordan klepper, who is a

comedian. night.iver was seen last driver was seen last night. s.ese are b-list star they are scraping the bottom of the barrel. seeing the major celebrities like ben affleck or george clooney or people like juliana morgales. i talked to her for my story. she said it should be happy to go back in a democratic administration. if trump came to the dinner, she would not be very happy. that is the sense i get from hollywood, news organizations are not even inviting hollywood celebrities because they know it is not worth it.

i know that some news organizations with the new york times stopped going to this dinner because they said it about -- it stopped being journalism. are we seeing more journalistic organizations come back to the dinner now that it has moved away from hollywood? do you see it reverting back to what it used to be before president trump came to washington? guest: i think it will revert back to its normal state of bash a celebrity filled and weekend full of these types of parties. that will require a democrat to a republican who likes hollywood and hollywood likes them. they are not going to come back in the trump administration.

proceeds. i think it is good to have a more slimmed down approach. i talked to people in the local economy in washington, and they are reporting lost business, not as many highrollers using hotels. that is not a horrible thing. this buffoonish affair where ever and was trying to get into as many parties as possible. that is still the case, but they go about it less transparently. host: we would like to thank daniel lipman for coming to talk to us about the white house correspondents association's dinner tonight. will you be at the dinner tonight? guest: i will be at the dinner in my black tie. host: thank you, daniel. we appreciate you helping us out this morning. guest: thank you. host: you can see the white

house correspondents association's dinner on c-span tonight, live at 9:30 p.m. eastern time. instead of being at the white house correspondents association's dinner, donald trump will be going to green bay, wisconsin, to hold a rally. on the phone, we have craig bureau, the washington chief for the milwaukee journal sentinel about what he expects for tonight's dinner. good morning. caller: good morning. host: instead of being at the washington correspondents dinner, president trump is coming to milwaukee, i mean green bay, wisconsin, to hold a rally. what to expect president trump to say? guest: i think it will be a typical trump campaign rally. this is his first reelection rally in wisconsin, which was a key state for him. it helped push him over the

top. part of this is theatrical. a battleground region like green bay, i'm sure you will see him play off of that. i think it is good to be a classic trump campaign rally. host: why wisconsin? what makes wisconsin so important in 2020? guest: it is important for both parties. it is probably more important for democrats because wisconsin is a state that has been voting democratic since the 1980's. when donald trump flipped those states, that was his margin for victory. if the democrats can win back those states and nothing else on the map changes, they will win the white house in 2020. wisconsin is at the epicenter of this looming campaign. it is a state that has been close for a long time. it was not close during the

obama years, but three of the last five presidential elections have been decided by less than one point. it is competitive. there is a lot of change going on in wisconsin. the republican gains in the rural areas have been offset by the democratic gains in the urban and inner suburbs. it has been a standoff. host: do we have any indication now which way wisconsin is leaning in the 2020 election? is it a tossup? guest: i think it is truly a tossup. i have been talking to a lot of smart people in both parties about this. the psychology of the state is interesting within the political world because both sides have had some really uplifting victories and some really painful defeats. wearinessind of a war an and and -- and

acknowledgment that they have both been disappointed. everybody is prepared for a brutal slaw, a fierce battle different from 2016 because people thought wisconsin would vote democratic. the democrats did not really campaign in the state. hillary clinton did not come during the general election. now everybody is prepared. everyone is going in with their eyes open that this could go either way. that is why you see the democrats holding their convention in wisconsin in milwaukee. it reminds me of 2004 when wisconsin was a top three or four state of the bush and kerry campaign. that drove turn out to an extreme level. host: when president trump turns up tonight, will there be any prominent republican politicians with him?

will we see former speaker paul ryan, the former governor on stage with the president? guest: you will not see paul ryan. i'm not sure who is going to be there, but what is interesting is you don't have the same leadership in the republican party as you did in 2016. there was a group that was known as the big three in wisconsin, which was the governor, scott soaringbriefly presidential candidacy that was eclipsed by donald trump. you had reince priebus, who had been the state republican chair and then the national republican chair. these three people brought a lot of money into wisconsin, provided leadership, helped to motivate the republican party. we have a democratic governor now because scott walker lost his reelection campaign in 2018

when the states want to the democrats in the midterms. paul ryan is gone. white priebus became house chief of staff, and now he is gone from that job. these changes have some bearing on 2020, you don't have those national republican figures from wisconsin in the party, active in office anymore. host: democrats are also coming to the state in 2020. they are holding their democratic national convention in milwaukee. what is the state of play for democrats in wisconsin now? guest: we are seeing early visits from the people running for the democratic nomination. i think the decision to hold the convention in milwaukee, the other contenders were miami and houston. wisconsin became the obvious

choice for some of the reasons we have been talking about. it is such a critical state. it is a blue wall state. it sends the signal that democrats are going to be laser focused on the industrial midwest, the blue wall states, blue-collar voters. that is certainly the message that democrats are trying to send. wisconsin is certainly winnable for them. they won it seven times in a row before donald trump came along. by lessrump only won than a percentage point. it will not take much to tip this state to one party or the other. it is a huge priority for democrats. i don't think there is any scenario in which they could win the electoral college without wisconsin in 2020. host: do any of the democratic presidential contenders hold a particular advantage in wisconsin right now? guest: you know, it is going to

be -- the wisconsin primary comes so late in the process in april. it will be significant if the race is not been decided because it is by itself, a big hole in the calendar. stature, joe biden has like he does in other states. bernie sanders is the guy who won wisconsin primary against hillary clinton in 2016. but one of the 72 counties in the state. bernie sanders does have that. everything else is open-ended. we will have to see as the race plays out by the time he gets to wisconsin. in terms of the general election, wisconsin is a state with a big segment of blue-collar, white voters.

appeal forre is some a populist candidate, but it has been voting for democrats pretty frequently since ronald reagan. barack obama was particularly popular. the fact that donald trump wno it -- won it tells you how much the state swings. host: we would like to thank craig gilbert of the "milwaukee journal rallyh the president's and the white house correspondents dinner will be live on c-span. it will be the 18th rally that president trump has held in wisconsin. chernow headlines the white house correspondents

dinner. you can listen on our free radio app. a forum on efforts to prevent violent extremism in countries with weak governments. madeleine albright joins a panel about the importance of governments maintaining their social contracts with citizens. looking panel followed at prioritizing prevention across the federal government. the u.s. institute of peace hosted the event. >> good